LAUREN LAVERNE RADIO DJ FOR BOOKTRUST NATIONAL BOOK START WEEK VOICEOVER

Monday 22nd May – To celebrate 25 years of Bookstart, BookTrust has partnered with popular TV presenter and Radio DJ Lauren Laverne, who voices the interactive storybook, to bring this year’s National Bookstart Week title, Everybunny Dance! to life.

BookTrust, through its partnership with Hodder Children’s Books, part of the Hachette Children’s Group, will gift 450,000 hard copies of Ellie Sandall’s Everybunny Dance! to children across the country through National Bookstart Week (5-11 June).

Lauren Laverne said: “I’m thrilled to be taking part in BookTrust’s National Bookstart Week. Reading is an important way of bringing families together, sharing moments of fun and exploring other worlds with our children. I hope families up and down the country have a fantastic time celebrating!”

National Bookstart Week is an annual celebration of BookTrust’s flagship reading programme, Bookstart, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Since 1992, BookTrust has gifted over 34 million books to children across the country through Bookstart. The programme gives every child in England and Wales a free reading pack in the first year of their life and again when they are 3-4 years old.

Ellie Sandall, author of Everybunny Dance! said: “It’s an absolute privilege to have Everybunny Dance! chosen as this year’s National Bookstart Week title. BookTrust does a brilliant job of promoting a real joy of reading among children and families, and I’m so happy to be involved in such an important way.”

This year’s National Bookstart Week theme is ‘Let’s explore outdoors’ and from Monday 5th – Sunday 11th June there will be hundreds of free events around the country for babies, toddlers, pre-schoolers and their families, at libraries, children centres, nurseries and bookshops.

Diana Gerald, Chief Executive of BookTrust said: “Everybunny Dance! is a wonderfully entertaining book, we are thrilled it’s been chosen as our National Bookstart Week title. Lauren’s playful voiceover really does bring the book to life. We hope families across the country enjoy celebrating 25 years of Bookstart by taking their book and little ones outdoors to dance along with the bunnies.”

Everybunny Dance! was chosen as this year’s National Bookstart Week title for its fun illustrations, engaging rhyming text and its strength in a story time setting. Previous titles include A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea, adapted by Jessica Law and illustrated by Jill McDonald, Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae and illustrated by David Wojtowycz and Super Duck by Jez Alborough.

Anne McNeil, Senior Publisher at Hodder Children’s Books said:

“We are delighted that Everybunny Dance! will be BookTrust’s National Bookstart Week 2017 title. Ellie’s work is joyful and fun: the ideal choice to encourage families to share books from the earliest age. We are also thrilled that Lauren Laverne will lend the perfect voice to the interactive digital storybook!”